Do you care to give us any insight on how you textured the background?

Is the face a likeness of anyone or did you just make her up?

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The background is a combination of a photograph of some clouds and a stock overlay texture derived from a concrete wall, vines, roses and a few other things.

As for the face, I didn't set out to imitate anyone in particular but there's probably a fair amount of Sandra Bullock in there, a little Tia Carerre, some Salli Richardson-Whitfield and probably others.

Tom HendricksThat boy is our last hope, NO! there is another.Premium Member

I don't know if its just me but I only see Ivanova. Who am I? I am Susan Ivanova, Commander. Daughter of Andre and Sophie Ivanov. I am the right hand of vengeance and the boot that is going to kick your sorry ass all the way back to Earth, sweetheart! I am death incarnate, and the last living thing that you will ever see. God sent me

It would be nice if the end result winds up looking like an oil painting.

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Seems like you've got a pretty decent handle on that already in the areas you've put more time into. One thing that should help, if you weren't already planning to, is doing your final pass without transparency and layer effects and other purely digital tool. Just high (if not 100%) brushes (perhaps with some fancy brush dynamics on) and a little smudging here and there. It is a challenge but it does force you to use more physical medium technique which in my experience lends it more of that physical medium look. Either way it is looking great.

Seems like you've got a pretty decent handle on that already in the areas you've put more time into. One thing that should help, if you weren't already planning to, is doing your final pass without transparency and layer effects and other purely digital tool. Just high (if not 100%) brushes (perhaps with some fancy brush dynamics on) and a little smudging here and there. It is a challenge but it does force you to use more physical medium technique which in my experience lends it more of that physical medium look. Either way it is looking great.

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As I continue refining details the texture overlays should gradually disappear or get painted over. I'm just using them right now to add some texture to the piece. I'm not using any layer effects at all other than blending modes.

I've gone back to the monochromatic version, at least for now. It just has more of that classical feel to it and the sky doesn't compete as much with the central figure. I widened the aspect ratio from 1:1.5 to 1:1.25 for a 16"x20" final print, though I'm starting to wonder if I might need to tighten up the framing somewhat. Started sharpening the rendering on most everything from the ribcage up. Pulled in her right shoulder a bit to correct a proportional error and adjusted the angle of her right forearm for better balance. Intensified her halo and the glow coming off her wings. Getting there slowly but surely.

Here's an almost full-res close-up on the more refined upper body. I'm pretty happy with the overall texture that's coming through.

And finally, here are a couple of hair style variants, one with ears covered and the other with her hair drawn back behind them. Haven't been able to decide which I like better. Opinions?

I gotta say, I like the ears covered also. To my eye, having the ears revealed makes the hair look slightly more helmet-like. Also, as a fan of fantasy/sci-fi art, and as someone who has sketched numerous young ladies myself, I find that most hairstyles tend to cover the ears naturally anyway. Every time I see pics of elves (or Vulcans) the artists seem to go to pains to show the ears, and it usually strikes me as forced.

So, I vote covered ears.

--Alex

P.S. Sorry, Vektor, I posted this from my phone before your post went up, and I guess the magic of phone tech delayed actually getting it up for an hour. Ah well.

Looking fantastic man. Really well done and a cool design on the armor too. Watch out for the way you've lit the face though; at first glance in the zoomed out shot it almost looks like she has a 5-o'clock shadow.

Thanks for sticking with me, gang. I think I'm into the home stretch now. I still have one more "coat tail" to add and a fair amount of clean-up left to do, not to mention a TON of detail to do on the wings, but I think I finally got her hair figured out and I'd say the armor is close to final.

And... as much I love the texture and slight vignette effect of the texture overlay, I am sorely tempted to dispense with it altogether, especially since this is going to be printed on canvas. What do you all think? Keep it? Dump it? Something in-between?

Personally, i love the texture. I'd say keep it. The "dirt" of it (for me anyway) ties it to the devotional artwork of earlier centuries, which I like to have as a sort of anchor as the rest of the style is a fairly modern style. Lose the texture and you lose the connection. I dunno, there's just something pseudo-Victorian about the scratches and the rose silhouettes that really gives this image the punch it doesn't quite have without them...